Boeing Starts Delivering 787s

Boeing’s goal of achieving 60 787 deliveries in 2013 came one closer May 14 when All Nippon Airways (ANA) accepted Line No. 83 from the factory in Everett, Wash., the first since the company halted deliveries in January after regulators shut down 787 commercial flights due to battery failures.

Launch customer ANA, which operates the largest 787 fleet, now has received 18 of the 66 aircraft it has ordered. The Tokyo-based carrier is to resume commercial 787 services on June. 1.

The company does not release delivery schedules or the order at which customers are to receive their aircraft. However, to make up lost time, it will need to average nearly eight deliveries per month through December, instead of five under the original schedule.

That should be no problem: it delivered 83 777s last year from what is still its busiest widebody assembly line and it pushed out 23 787s in a fourth quarter spring in 2012.